


A step forward

by margesimpson



Series: operation: get my nemesis with my dad back together [4]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 13:07:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20760848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/margesimpson/pseuds/margesimpson
Summary: Gaz weighs in





	A step forward

"Do you think we should be drinking that at our age?" 

Gaz was brewing a cup of coffee. Dib watched as she poured some milk into the mixture. 

"It helps me focus." 

Dib mumbled in acknowledgement, but he didn't feel very convinced. He focuses on continuing their conversation from yesterday. 

"Gaz, I think dad and Zim are really in love-" 

"No duh, idiot," Gaz interrupted, and then bumped her fist against her brother's shoulder, which got an unwarranted "ow!" from Dib. Gaz seated herself next to him. 

"Of course they were. You'd think Zim would've taken advantage of his position as dad's arm candy, but he did nothing but hang around our house and ground you-" 

"- which interrupted my investigations -!" 

"-it did nothing." Gaz took a sip of her coffee."I figured Zim had feelings for him, and would've fessed up eventually. However, I didn't account for the fact that those two, and  _ you _ , are complete idiots."

Dib decides to brush the insult aside, for the greater good. He taps his fingers nervously on the table top as Gaz takes another sip of her coffee. 

" You really haven't thought this through, have you?"

"What do you mean-" 

"If Zim," Gaz says slowly, "is busy dating our dad, he's too busy to invade Earth. And he'll never get rid of dad, because he's in love with him. Like with everything he does, it's self sabotage."

Dib felt like a timer that just went off. Gaz rolled her eyes at him. 

"So what do we do?" 

"We get them to talk, obviously."

"What!? How?" 

Gaz shushes him, and looks up at the ceiling, listening if he had woken up their father. There seemed to be no sound. 

"Listen, I'll do my part," Gaz whispers, to be safe, "you just get Zim to Membrane Labs at 10, okay?" 

"How do I do that?" 

"I don't care. Just do it. And you better go now. You have like, three hours."

Dib checked the clock and abruptly jumped from his chair. And, as Gaz predicted, he's immediately out the door without a goodbye. 

Gaz finishes her coffee in silence, thinking over her plan. Surely, even her idiot brother couldn't mess it up, she hoped. 

She lifted her head to watch her father groggily walking through the doorway. 

"Good morning, dad."

"Oh," he said, perking up, "hello sweetheart."

"You want me to boot up Foodio?" Gaz asked, trying to distract her father from looking at her coffee cup. He notices regardless, and gives her a frown. She doesn't react, acts innocently. This is endearing to him, as always. 

"No, no, it's fine. I was thinking of cleaning the dishes, actually. Like people."

"Oh, okay," Gaz said, not really knowing what to say. "Unless," Membrane moved to the sink, "did you want-?" 

"No, no I'm good. Thank you."

Gaz watched curiously as her father turned the faucet and began to scrub their dishes idly. She had never seen her father so...domestic, like this. It made concern grow in her stomach. She eventually gets up and stands by her father's side. 

"Hey, dad, are you okay?" 

Membrane didn't answer, but instead paused his scrubbing, and hid his face from his daughter in his hand. Gaz reached to rub his back as a gesture of comfort. They stand there, like that, for a while before Gaz suggests

"Do you want to go outside for a while before you go to work?" 

Membrane lifts his head, and considers this for a moment. 

"I do, actually," he concludes, "but let me finish the dishes first."

"Okay," Gaz says, and rests her head against his leg until he finishes. 

-

Gaz doesn't know why she suggested the beach. It was the first thing that came to mind - perhaps she had seen one recently in a commercial and it was just at the back of her mind. Regardless, it was the wrong suggestion. Her father was upset. 

"What's wrong, dad?" 

"No, it's fine, it's just-" Membrane rested his chin in his hand. "He _hated_ the beach."

"Yeah, he's kind of allergic-" 

"I know that. Oh God," Membrane exhaled, leaning back, "all the signs were there and I didn't see."

"Maybe you didn't want to see."

"That's not very scientific, Gaz."

Gaz shrugged, and turned her head to take in the view. They were seated on a bench on a cliff overseeing the beach. She saw a seagull picking at an unfinished hot dog. 

"You can't stop thinking about him, can you?" 

"Now I-" 

"You miss him." 

"No I don't," Membrane asserted. "I'm- I'm just-" 

"You haven't stopped talking about him." 

"So!? He deceived me-" Membrane huffed, getting up from his seat and started to pace in place. "I don't care if he's an alien - if it's a fact it's a fact but it's the lie that gets to me."

"I dunno dad, you're not really going about this scientifically." 

Membrane stopped in his tracks. "Excuse me?" 

  
  


"I'm just saying," Gaz wished she had her gaming device, "you're only seeing this from one perspective."

"You're not suggesting that I-" Membrane couldn't finish his sentence, and guffawed at the thought. Gaz knew her father too well, knowing his stubbornness and his moral code would come to a head.

"Okay, so he's an alien," Membrane begins to pace again, "and I'm not particularly fond of the paranormal, but I- I'm NOT- but he could- - no, he couldn't have. I- No but..."

Most of this was incomprehensible to Gaz, her frustrated father's rambling spiraling into sputtering and stutters. His ranting comes to a climax as he takes it out on an innocent bystanding trash can, incinerating it with his robot arm.

Gaz was impressed by the flaming pile left behind. Her father was panting. 

"Did that make you feel any better?"

"... a bit." 


End file.
